Bad Land: An American Romance

Jonathan Raban

How did a promise of easy riches through scientific dry farming draw homesteaders onto the Montana plains, and what did the land give them?

At a glance

You will see how a land booster tied prosperity to virtue, arguing that it is easier to be good after a fine dinner
You will spot how simple home experiments can lend a shaky farming theory the authority of science
You will learn to test a confident forecast of riches against the weather and land that must actually deliver it